Is there a 'down side' to requesting mini-bar stuff in advance?

I'm not sure I found it very helpful to request mini-bar stocking with the online check-in option. Here is why.

I have always been told that you can request a certain building or floor when you check in (within the room category you booked of course) but I found that when we had checked in online this past trip via the Romance Rewards Online Check-In when we arrived at the resort and tried to request a building/floor (we were looking for something 1st or 2nd floor in buildings 1, 5, 6, or 9) we were told that they had already assigned us a 3rd floor room in one of the buildings we were hoping to avoid and had already stocked the room with our requested mini-bar items and a welcome back letter or something for us as repeaters.

SO I guess the lesson is not to used the option of stocking our mini-bar prior to arrival? We had been led to understand that we could make requests as I described on arrival (based on availability) but we were pretty much locked into the room they had already assigned. We were told the resort was sold out and it was that room or nothing (told this nicely) but we found that there were empty rooms in many of the areas we wanted and we were simply told that to avoid the inconvenience of changing to a building we preferred. We were left thinking that once the mini-bar is stocked and they put your welcome back stuff in there (they don't always put Welcome Back stuff in there, but it was there this time) your choices of room area at check-in are just too much trouble.
Anyone found a way around this problem or was it only our experience?
Thanks!

I did the online check in and requested my mini bar selections. This was at CSS in March. I had also sent a note requesting a certain building and floor (A Building, 2nd or 3rd Floor). We did get a room in the building that we wanted along w/ the floor (A25). Our mini-bar was NOT stocked per our request when we arrived in the room. I didn't re-request our room selection during check in. So either they knew from my previous request or it was just pure luck. We just called down and someone came about 10 minutes later. Unfortunately, nothing was cold at that point. :-(

I plan on doing it again for our trip to CN in November. And including our room request as well. Will see what happens.

Great question! We are hoping to use our resort credit for a room upgrade at check in depending on availability. Is there a spot on the Pre Check In form to note a building/floor or possible upgrade request?

We had a slightly similar experience -- we asked at check-in if we could switch to a 2nd or 3rd floor room, but were informed it wouldn't be available for hours and our room had already been stocked with our pre-selected items. So we elected to just stick with our ground floor room, which was fabulous, but for ocean view, it was lacking. We could only see a small bit of ocean if we went to the end of our patio and stood on our tip toes...lol. Funnier still, our mini bar was not stocked at all. Still, no biggie, we were just happy to be there, but we are doing it different this time...garden view, no requests.

I bet all these room requests are driving the front desk people nuts. Wherever happend to just taking what you are given. It does defeat the purpose of pre ordering your minibar like you said. We just taken the room we are given and I don't want to be a pain in the #ss. Im our experience, 6th trip to csa in April, we've never disliked our room enough to want to change

I've preregistered for our visit in 12 days, and I specifically do not want to be in bldg 2 so I may delete those requests if I can. We have a premier room at CTI and was hoping to get bldg 3 instead. I think the view is better without having to look out over the pool, and don't want all the noise from the pool area. The noise thing may not really be a concern like I'm thinking, but think I'd like the more direct view of the beach and ocean from bldg 3. Then again, with us going in the low season, there should be plenty of rooms to choose from.

I bet all these room requests are driving the front desk people nuts. Wherever happend to just taking what you are given. It does defeat the purpose of pre ordering your minibar like you said. We just taken the room we are given and I don't want to be a pain in the #ss. Im our experience, 6th trip to csa in April, we've never disliked our room enough to want to change

I don't mind not getting what I request if it's not available. But I also don't ask for anything too specific. This last trip to CSS... Building A... 2nd or 3rd floor. That's a lot of rooms to pick from! LOL

I figure it can't hurt to ask and if they have it available, why not? I could care less about my mini-fridge being pre-stocked. I care more about room location. I can call after we get settled in and request the items for the mini-fridge but I have the room for the entire week and prefer to have the location I desire.

For our upcoming trip to CN, my only room request was to NOT be in Building 9 by the AN section. We booked a Beachfront Suite so limited number of rooms but that still leaves 3 other buildings and all floors. If we end up in #9? No worries. Just a request and I know it can't be guaranteed.

I'm not sure I found it very helpful to request mini-bar stocking with the online check-in option. Here is why.

I have always been told that you can request a certain building or floor when you check in (within the room category you booked of course) but I found that when we had checked in online this past trip via the Romance Rewards Online Check-In when we arrived at the resort and tried to request a building/floor (we were looking for something 1st or 2nd floor in buildings 1, 5, 6, or 9) we were told that they had already assigned us a 3rd floor room in one of the buildings we were hoping to avoid and had already stocked the room with our requested mini-bar items and a welcome back letter or something for us as repeaters.

SO I guess the lesson is not to used the option of stocking our mini-bar prior to arrival? We had been led to understand that we could make requests as I described on arrival (based on availability) but we were pretty much locked into the room they had already assigned. We were told the resort was sold out and it was that room or nothing (told this nicely) but we found that there were empty rooms in many of the areas we wanted and we were simply told that to avoid the inconvenience of changing to a building we preferred. We were left thinking that once the mini-bar is stocked and they put your welcome back stuff in there (they don't always put Welcome Back stuff in there, but it was there this time) your choices of room area at check-in are just too much trouble.
Anyone found a way around this problem or was it only our experience?
Thanks!

The empty rooms you reference were probably not available for each of the nights you were booked there. Remember that people come and go at different times for different lengths of stay and it is very hard for Couples to coordinate all this. You often are checking into a room that was occupied earlier in the day. After all the cleaning of the room there may not always be time to stock your pre arrival requests before you enter the room. If so it will be stocked shortly afterward. Your room may have been empty earlier that day and all this got done before you arrived? We always order our mini bar liquors on pre registration and have on a couple occasions moved rooms with no problem. Couples will try to find you the room you like if possible but it is not always the case. It has nothing to do with the liquors and welcome gifts being delivered to your room as they can be moved easily.

One thing I was disappointed with at CSS was the mini bar content replacements system - as there is supposedly a set number of items stocked as basic then like every other hotel worldwide that I have stayed in I expected the basic items would be restocked daily and we should only put out the request card at night if we required additional items the following day from those basic items. As no one told us it was 2 or 3 days into our holiday when we realised the bar was almost empty and discovered we had to reorder the basic items as well as the extras. Eventually we got into the habit of ordering every night before we went out for dinner as even after we knew the system we forgot to put the card out when we got in at night after a few drinks so the bar did not get restocked very often that first week.

I did the pre-check in and filled out the minibar requests. I also put a request about room location in the comment section. If we don't get the location I referenced on the check-in form, then oh well. All the rooms at CSA are awesome. I'd much rather mix a drink or pop a beer open while I unpack. So, hopefully the minibar stuff will be there when we get there. If it's not stocked....again "oh well". I'm on vacation and there to relax and have fun without my kids bugging me 24/7. I truly hope I get the room request and the minibar stocked, but we'll have to wait and see until this October. CSA in 57 days!!!!

Sandman - we had a premier in building 2 and had a great view. We were closer to the end of the building by the gym. Also noise was not a problem for us.

Thanks for the info! We're actually reconsidering bldg 2 now because the rooms in Bldg 3 appear from the overhead shots to be a bit too far down by the pier and not as much over the beach itself as we'd hoped. Might be nice to have a view of the pool to see what's going on down there. Tough to decide!

We always laugh to ourselves when we fill out the mini bar selection online. In three trips it has yet to be stocked on arrival yet. :-) we fill out the sheet once there and they fill it quickly, but never quite sure why they ask online and never do it. :-)

"Never" is not the right word in our case, since my problem turned out to be that they DID do it but then did not want to consider letting me choose another same price room in another building at check-n because it had been done. I guess it's just hard to please everyone.

I think in the future we will check-in online of course, but won't pre-stock the mini-bar in advance just in case that were to become a sticking point again. I'd rather have a chance to choose a resort location (in same category based on availability) and stock the mini-bar later then to arrive locked into to location we did not really want but have our stuff waiting in the mini-bar.

We checked in online for our first trip to CSA! We also put in a general req for our room and req what we wanted for our mini bar! A end room was no avail on check in, but we got a third floor room and a building close to the places we knew we would like best! Late in the afternoon all our mini bar req were there! We had no issues.

It is really kind of hard for them to pre-stock your mini bar when they do not know what room you are GUARANTEED to be in until after you checked in. It usually arrives later in the day after check in, or in the case of a late arrival, sometime the following day. Yes you do have to hang out the reorder sign when you need more, but I can change up that way. Is good mon!

We did the pre-request for the mini-bar. When we went to check-in, we were asked what floor we preferred. So we said second. We got second but we had to place our order out for the mini-bar. Apparantly the room assignment was "on the fly"?
It was not a big deal but I did feel if you ask me ahead of time what I want, then have it ready. We ended up having to order that night.

We probably will just wait to get our mini-bar stocked after we are in our room in the future.
I got the distinct impression that we were not given a choice of floors or buildings because they had already stocked ours with what we requested online and had already left some 'Welcome Back' repeater stuff in our room. Like others have mentioned, getting the mini-bar stocked after arrival is not a problem, so we will just do it that way next time to avoid the chance of getting locked out of having any room choice.